ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) – Florida voters are increasingly voicing a similar take on Republican front-runner Donald Trump: “Dice lo que piensa” – Spanish for “he speaks his mind.”
Trump boasts that he can win the Hispanic vote in a general election and next week, he faces his first major test in the winner-take-all primary in Florida, a highly contentious swing state with a large and diverse population of Latino voters.
Trump’s comments about building a southern border wall and his accusations that many Mexicans in the U.S. are “criminals, drug dealers, rapists” have outraged and alienated many American Hispanics. Yet his tough stance on illegal immigration plays well among Florida’s more conservative Latinos. Many Cuban-Americans, especially, view illegal immigration through the same lens as many of their white Republican peers who see immigration as an achievement, not as a right, that shouldn’t be taken for granted by those who come to America illegally.
Republican Hispanics want lower taxes, fewer regulations and limited government. National security, the spiraling debt and the preservation of Social Security and Medicare weigh heavily on their minds.
For that reason, Trump has surged in the polls ahead of this crucial contest, even as two Cuban-Americans – Florida’s own Sen. Marco Rubio, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz – look to use their heritage in their favor. For Rubio especially, who has collected only two wins so far – one of them in Puerto Rico – Florida’s all-or-nothing contest could be his campaign’s swan song if he doesn’t win.